| Glenn Beck's Common Sense: The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine |  | Author: Glenn Beck
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Category: Book
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $10.82
as of 3/17/2010 15:41 EDT details
You Save: $9.17 (46%)
In Stock
New (31) Used (19) from $9.74
Seller: pbshop
Rating:  1114 reviews
Sales Rank: 29,551
Format: Audiobook, Unabridged
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Unabridged
Number Of Items: 3
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 5.8 x 5.3 x 1
ISBN: 0743599357
Dewey Decimal Number: 320
EAN: 9780743599351
ASIN: 0743599357
Publication Date: June 16, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Tell A Friend
Add to Wishlist
Add to Wedding Registry
Add to Baby Registry
| |
| Features:
| | ISBN13: 9780743599351 | | | Condition: NEW | | | Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. |
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
#1 New York Times bestselling author and popular radio and television host Glenn Beck revisits Thomas Paine's Common Sense.
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 1114
Not really a fan, nor a hater.. but the book makes common sense March 10, 2010
Robert Kirk (Rancho Cucamonga, Ca)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I like to think of myself as an independent thinker. This book does a great job of breaking down some pretty big problems with government and society. If you are a parent or younger than 40, I finished the book with a bit of different perspective. I actually am not a fan of Mr. Beck, never seen his show. However he does seem to make some very valid points, especially about the economic troubles facing our nation. So, it's a fast read and if you are open minded, it's interesting and does make common sense.
 Common Sense November 2, 2009
Robert W. Roth Sr. (MI USA)
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
Common Sense is a very timely book which high lights so much of what is wrong with our government. Our founding fathers gave us a perfect blue print for our nation's government, based on freedom, liberty, and a limited Federal government. This book is a modern-day version of Thomas Paine's book, which inspired so many to fight the revolutionary war. Kudos to Glenn Beck on a excellent book, with an easy to read format.
Thank heaven for Common Sense October 21, 2009
T. E. Whitlock
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
Very informative, easy read. Beck provides ample references supporting his somewhat disconcerting claims. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and fully agree with the premise that it is time for a return to common sense. It is time for "we the people" to demand it.
 Bait and Switch February 2, 2010
Robert Carlberg (Seattle)
11 out of 16 found this review helpful
In many ways Glenn Beck's "Common Sense" is the antithesis of Robert Reich's "Supercapitalism." Both look at the same issue of government spending, and both lobby for a smaller, less-intrusive government.
Reich does it by laying out dozens of radical but doable reforms of Congress and business, to sever the ties between those two which impel career politicians to act on behalf of their financial contributors, to insure their own re-election rather than serving the people who elect them. His reasoning is clear, logical, compelling and common sense.
And because Congress would have to enact them, Reich's suggestions are entirely fantasy -- especially now that the activist Supreme Court has bestowed human rights on corporations.
Beck on the other hand pretends to lobby for smaller government, greater citizen involvement and fiscal conservatism -- but what his real agenda is, is lower taxes for the ultra-wealthy like himself. There is a shell-game underway by popular right-wing "opinion entertainers" who are telling their largely-unschooled listeners that taxes must be lowered. They don't mean taxes on their listeners of course. They mean their own.
Unlike Reich, Beck has never served in government and does not understand how it works. In fact, reading "Common Sense" (if ever quote marks were appropriate, here is the place) one gets a bewildering mish-mash of populist rhetoric and illogical jumps. He never once approaches a viable diagnosis, much less coming up with any solutions to the problems he misidentifies and fails to understand. His screed is pure vitriol against "out-of-control government" without feeling the slightest obligation to identify what is out of control or what might be cut without harm.
On page 12 he states "There's no one on television offering the 'right thing' to do whose advice you can accept unconditionally -- and that includes me." Of course television is the only medium he recognizes, because serious intellectual discourse is beyond his ken. The bubble world he and his other Fox pundits inhabit is one where soundbites and sloganeering take precedence over rational thought, where the consequences of working up a torch-and-pitchfork bearing crowd never occurs to those enamored of the sound of their own voices.
Unfortunately, unlike Reich the armed revolution that Beck foments is not entirely fantastic.
It is always easier to criticize those in power than to offer workable alternatives. Reich understands this, and his medicine is strong and powerful (however unlikely). Beck does not, and his book offers only homilies and ad hominems to bolster his own ego.
 Shall Not Perish from the Earth September 16, 2009
James Muccio (Indialantic, FL)
36 out of 54 found this review helpful
In his new book, "Glenn Beck's Common Sense, The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine, by Glenn Beck with Joseph Kerry, Mr. Beck chooses as a rallying cry the thoughts of some or our greatest founding fathers and the best political thinkers of all time -- at least with regard to the appropriate governance of a republic. If you are alive in the US today the rallying cry that our Government has failed us is an easy criticism to make. Taking to the streets as interested citizens and banding together for the common good as political advocates for change should resonate with everyone.
Yet Beck doesn't write for everyone though he could have. Take for example his opening line, "I think I know who you are". He goes on to list about 32 characteristics of a person in the general population who is upset and would like to see political change. I counted about 32 characteristics of this person and found I have only eight. That's about 25% percent. So Mr. Beck doesn't know me as well as he thinks he does. That's a problem, but not a big problem, because one my characteristics, one he does not mention, is the ability to hold, as F. Scott Fitzgerald has said, "...two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function." So I continued to read. Whereas he did not win me at hello, and he lost me occasionally at places where, for instance, he says in the context that our Social Security and Medicare obligations are upside down that, "...you many want to rethink your current family situation and have more kids." A stultifying statement if he seriously believes it. Yet I read on.
His agenda, tired and well trod, includes bashing any claim that climate change is actually occurring , standing up for our right to own handguns, and railing against the cancer, as he call it, of progressivism. Yet somehow, deep within the bowels of the book, not too deep it's only about a hundred pages long, and I can tell you specifically, "Chapter IV, the Perks and Privileges of the Political Class", he hits pay dirt. He's got about 15 pages of money here, no pun intended.
So in a book where he's got me pegged about 25% he's got a chapter with 100% of what I think. In addition he's got it right with regard to our two political parties not giving us sufficient options to truly be governed by ourselves. His call for change here is highly appropriate. But since all of these book reviews are more about politics and less about the particular book, I will close with a counter quote to his call to revolution, even a revolution of ideas, "that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth" as a chilling reminder of what happens when we cannot reach a solution. The source of this quote is left to the reader.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 1114
| In Stock
|
|
|
CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON SERVICES LLC. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’ AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME. |
| |
